I have a large pile of Boulders that were excavated when digging out the foundation/crawl space at our Montana House, which were never disposed of, but were simply piled adjacent to the house by the previous owner. I have to relocate/dispose of them. I have been using our small John Deere Tractor and front end loader to pick up the smaller boulders, roll them, or drag them with a chain to a storage pile about 200 yards from the house. Come spring melt; the last of the small boulders will be moved.
Attachment 128505 Attachment 128506
I am now approaching the challenge of the large boulders, some of which are 4ft x 4ft x 5ft. Knowing the cost of contracting to have someone come and move them/haul them away is going to be quite expensive, I have been looking at alternatives. I considered 10,000 year old technology of heating them with a fire and fracturing them with a sledgehammer or water quench, but that is going to be very time consuming/hot work/lots of fire wood or charcoal. Of course there's always the drill a hole and hammer with wedges.
I found two items I was wondering if others might have experience with and can provide recommendations. One might be considered to be firearm related (Boulder Buster), the other is a chemical expansion process with a few different manufacturers/distributors such as Dexpan. A diagram of the Boulder Buster "Firing Apparatus":
Attachment 128507
See links:
Boulder Buster -
http://www.boulderbuster.ca/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-t...yt-cl=84503534
DexPan -
http://www.dexpan.com/dexpan-how-to-...-breaking.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgOt...yt-cl=84503534
The Boulder Buster looks like it would be more enjoyable as it goes "Bang", but the DexPan looks as if it would be as effective but slower and probably less expensive. The Boulder Buster supposedly uses either a rimfire or a shotgun style round. Literature indicates the cartridges will not chamber in firearms.
Thoughts from others on reducing/moving boulders?